The shadows were getting longer, but they were not tired.
The urge came over them, every once in a while, to fly until they decided to turn back. They could go for days at a time, soaring over the rolling plains and sparkling lakes, spiraling high over the gray mountain peaks capped with snow. Strapped into the flying harness, he would hold tight to his partner’s back as they plummeted, the air ripped from their lungs as they laughed in exultation. The urge had come over them again, and so here they were, on the mountaintop.
He reached over and laid a hand on his partner’s flank, the orange and yellow dragon radiating heat. He felt the Charizard’s heartbeat pulse under his palm, matching his own. The Charizard raised his head, and he scratched under his partner’s chin. “We’ve come a long way, haven’t we?”
The Charizard growled low in his throat. It sounded threatening, and would unnerve someone unfamiliar with the dragon. But he knew that for Charizard, it was not unlike a feline purring. “I mean, sure, we’ve come far this time,” he continued. “But that’s not what I mean.” He stared into the fire at the tip of Charizard’s tail, burning a merry red-gold. “We’ve come so far together, all these years. Do you remember when we first met? We were so young then. We walked out into the world for the first time, side by side. It was kind of scary, and everything seemed so big, but we had each other.”
Charizard nodded slowly and closed his eyes, inviting his trainer to lean up against his flank and keep warm. When he obliged, Charizard curled his tail around, and they sat in comfortable silence for a while. “We stood at the top of Indigo Plateau, remember that? The view from the top, the whole region spread out at our feet. And we had conquered it. We got all of our badges, we beat the League. We were magnificent, you and I.
“And then we kept going. We found new regions to explore, new horizons to chase, new mountains to climb.” He ran his fingers along several of the scars etched into Charizard’s scales, delicately tracing the raised white tissue. “And sure, we lost our fair share. We had our butts handed to us a few times. But we kept getting back up, didn’t we?”
Charizard rumbled and opened one blue eye, his mouth opening in a lazy grin. He laughed. “Yeah, yeah, easy for me to say, right? I wasn’t the one getting beat up. You’re a trooper, partner.” He dug in his pack for a strip of jerky and Charizard ate it from his hand, careful not to bite his trainer. Charizard’s eyes were still bright, he thought, even after all these years. He hoped that light never dimmed.
“We’re going to grow old together, aren’t we?” he said. Charizard huffed. “You’re right, you’re right, we already have grown old together. Well, we’ll grow older together then.”
He sighed. “The world’s always getting bigger, isn’t it? We’re always finding something new. There’s always another river to follow back to the source, some cave to dig around in. But do you ever feel like, I don’t know, even as the world’s getting bigger, it’s getting smaller? That maybe we’re getting a little old for this, like it’s time we settled down? Maybe this adventuring stuff is for the kids.”
Charizard raised his shoulders in a humanlike shrug, a gesture he learned from his trainer. It wasn’t the first time they had talked about it. And they tried settling down, they really did. And it worked sometimes, they would stay put for weeks or months at a time. But each time, they kept getting dragged back by that inescapable wanderlust, that overpowering need to move and see and experience. They would go looking for new and exciting battles to fight, or retread old ground looking for new secrets. Sometimes, they decided to go back to basics and walk the same paths they had in the old days. He would never see the world the way he had that first day, so long ago, stepping out of town for the first time with a Charmander at his side, taking that first step on a journey of countless miles. But sometimes, it was nice to pretend.
One of his favorite things was to see that same look in the faces of kids just setting out. Everything was new and exciting for them, each new encounter a discovery. Every so often, some new bit of the world would open up, and people would spill out en masse to see it, to explore it and chart it and experience it. And he was right in the press with everyone else, tripping and stumbling and racing along to see just what else this world had in store for him. Every time he did that, it was a little like the first time, to see the wide world opening up in front of him. It wasn’t the first step anymore, but it was like that. And he loved that feeling.
He and Charizard, they mostly kept to themselves. They liked to adventure on their own, to wander those forested paths and scale the mountains at their pace. But they had met their share of friends along the way. Friends who had helped them, friends who had challenged them, friends who had inspired them to do better, be better, become the very best. And he loved that now, when the path grew too lonely, when he needed someone to walk alongside, he could. It was easier now than ever to reach out to someone who walked the same paths he did, but who saw those paths in a fundamentally different way.
He rested his forehead against Charizard’s side. “Do you remember when… oh, of course you do.” They had been through it all together. They had looked in awe on the grand, sweeping bridges of Unova, surmounted the very top of Mount Coronet and screamed at the top of their voices just to hear the echo resound over all of Sinnoh. They had seen the forests of Johto in all their autumnal splendor and soared above the deep blue Hoennian seas, feeling the sun beat hot upon their backs. They had followed the meandering path of the Kalosian rivers from where they cascaded over the crags to their springs in the deep glens, and had stood many times on the windswept plains of the Kanto lowlands. And they had flown, flown as fast and as far as the winds would carry them.
“Hey,” he said. “This is as far as we’ve ever been this way.” He pointed out to where the sun was setting. “Don’t you want to see what’s out there?” Charizard nodded and they got to their feet. “There’s something good just over the horizon, I can feel it in my bones.”
Charizard sank to a crouch, and he strapped himself into the flying harness. Charizard lifted off with a flap of his mighty wings, and they took one long loop over the mountaintop before soaring to the west, soaring into the setting sun. He held out his wrist and looked into the reflective surface of the stone inset onto the bracelet there. “You ready, partner?” Charizard roared in answer, a gout of flame shooting from his maw. “All right! Here we go!”
Light poured from the stone, and the charm around Charizard’s neck glowed bright. The dragon was enveloped in a brilliant glow, and when the blinding glare faded, Charizard surged upward on his now-larger wings, tossing his three-horned head. The fire on his tail burned even brighter, and his scales seemed to glow with an inner light, dispelling the coming evening shadows.
His trainer threw back his head and laughed, his hair streaming behind him. “We’ve really got it now, partner. Come on, let’s chase that sunset!” The Charizard poured on speed, and the ground raced by below them. Herds of Bouffalant and Gogoat charged by on the plains, hounded by packs of Mightyena and Pyroar. Flocks of Pidgeotto and Fearow glanced upward as their shadows passed overhead. A lone Dragonair burst from the surface of a lake as they soared by. Three Absol watched them from mountain steppes and turned away when they decided the Charizard meant no trouble.
And still, they hurtled towards the setting sun. In the deep purple sky behind them, some of the stars were beginning to shine, and the moon had risen. The unexplored lands were getting closer, and that all-too-familiar wanderlust was rising up again. The trainer leaned down in the harness, pressing himself close to Charizard’s back. The heat radiating from the dragon kept him warm, but he wouldn’t have cared about the cold anyway. There were new adventures to have, and the chance to look on a new land with the same sense of wonder he had all those years ago when he first left on his journey.
“Let’s go there,” he whispered. “Together.”
Author's Note: I didn't mean to write this fic. It just sort of... happened. I knew some people were doing things for the 20th anniversary, but I didn't plan to. I had a lot on my plate anyway, and I'm not really one for sentimentality. But the more I thought about it, the more I felt like I had to pay some kind of tribute to, well, all of this. To everything that Pokemon stands for as a franchise, and what it means to me. And so, well, I guess that's what this is. It's my little tribute to Pokemon for all it's done, a way of saying thank you.
And I was very certainly, definitively not misty eyed and smiling wistfully the entire time I was writing this. No, shut up, I totally wasn't!
The urge came over them, every once in a while, to fly until they decided to turn back. They could go for days at a time, soaring over the rolling plains and sparkling lakes, spiraling high over the gray mountain peaks capped with snow. Strapped into the flying harness, he would hold tight to his partner’s back as they plummeted, the air ripped from their lungs as they laughed in exultation. The urge had come over them again, and so here they were, on the mountaintop.
He reached over and laid a hand on his partner’s flank, the orange and yellow dragon radiating heat. He felt the Charizard’s heartbeat pulse under his palm, matching his own. The Charizard raised his head, and he scratched under his partner’s chin. “We’ve come a long way, haven’t we?”
The Charizard growled low in his throat. It sounded threatening, and would unnerve someone unfamiliar with the dragon. But he knew that for Charizard, it was not unlike a feline purring. “I mean, sure, we’ve come far this time,” he continued. “But that’s not what I mean.” He stared into the fire at the tip of Charizard’s tail, burning a merry red-gold. “We’ve come so far together, all these years. Do you remember when we first met? We were so young then. We walked out into the world for the first time, side by side. It was kind of scary, and everything seemed so big, but we had each other.”
Charizard nodded slowly and closed his eyes, inviting his trainer to lean up against his flank and keep warm. When he obliged, Charizard curled his tail around, and they sat in comfortable silence for a while. “We stood at the top of Indigo Plateau, remember that? The view from the top, the whole region spread out at our feet. And we had conquered it. We got all of our badges, we beat the League. We were magnificent, you and I.
“And then we kept going. We found new regions to explore, new horizons to chase, new mountains to climb.” He ran his fingers along several of the scars etched into Charizard’s scales, delicately tracing the raised white tissue. “And sure, we lost our fair share. We had our butts handed to us a few times. But we kept getting back up, didn’t we?”
Charizard rumbled and opened one blue eye, his mouth opening in a lazy grin. He laughed. “Yeah, yeah, easy for me to say, right? I wasn’t the one getting beat up. You’re a trooper, partner.” He dug in his pack for a strip of jerky and Charizard ate it from his hand, careful not to bite his trainer. Charizard’s eyes were still bright, he thought, even after all these years. He hoped that light never dimmed.
“We’re going to grow old together, aren’t we?” he said. Charizard huffed. “You’re right, you’re right, we already have grown old together. Well, we’ll grow older together then.”
He sighed. “The world’s always getting bigger, isn’t it? We’re always finding something new. There’s always another river to follow back to the source, some cave to dig around in. But do you ever feel like, I don’t know, even as the world’s getting bigger, it’s getting smaller? That maybe we’re getting a little old for this, like it’s time we settled down? Maybe this adventuring stuff is for the kids.”
Charizard raised his shoulders in a humanlike shrug, a gesture he learned from his trainer. It wasn’t the first time they had talked about it. And they tried settling down, they really did. And it worked sometimes, they would stay put for weeks or months at a time. But each time, they kept getting dragged back by that inescapable wanderlust, that overpowering need to move and see and experience. They would go looking for new and exciting battles to fight, or retread old ground looking for new secrets. Sometimes, they decided to go back to basics and walk the same paths they had in the old days. He would never see the world the way he had that first day, so long ago, stepping out of town for the first time with a Charmander at his side, taking that first step on a journey of countless miles. But sometimes, it was nice to pretend.
One of his favorite things was to see that same look in the faces of kids just setting out. Everything was new and exciting for them, each new encounter a discovery. Every so often, some new bit of the world would open up, and people would spill out en masse to see it, to explore it and chart it and experience it. And he was right in the press with everyone else, tripping and stumbling and racing along to see just what else this world had in store for him. Every time he did that, it was a little like the first time, to see the wide world opening up in front of him. It wasn’t the first step anymore, but it was like that. And he loved that feeling.
He and Charizard, they mostly kept to themselves. They liked to adventure on their own, to wander those forested paths and scale the mountains at their pace. But they had met their share of friends along the way. Friends who had helped them, friends who had challenged them, friends who had inspired them to do better, be better, become the very best. And he loved that now, when the path grew too lonely, when he needed someone to walk alongside, he could. It was easier now than ever to reach out to someone who walked the same paths he did, but who saw those paths in a fundamentally different way.
He rested his forehead against Charizard’s side. “Do you remember when… oh, of course you do.” They had been through it all together. They had looked in awe on the grand, sweeping bridges of Unova, surmounted the very top of Mount Coronet and screamed at the top of their voices just to hear the echo resound over all of Sinnoh. They had seen the forests of Johto in all their autumnal splendor and soared above the deep blue Hoennian seas, feeling the sun beat hot upon their backs. They had followed the meandering path of the Kalosian rivers from where they cascaded over the crags to their springs in the deep glens, and had stood many times on the windswept plains of the Kanto lowlands. And they had flown, flown as fast and as far as the winds would carry them.
“Hey,” he said. “This is as far as we’ve ever been this way.” He pointed out to where the sun was setting. “Don’t you want to see what’s out there?” Charizard nodded and they got to their feet. “There’s something good just over the horizon, I can feel it in my bones.”
Charizard sank to a crouch, and he strapped himself into the flying harness. Charizard lifted off with a flap of his mighty wings, and they took one long loop over the mountaintop before soaring to the west, soaring into the setting sun. He held out his wrist and looked into the reflective surface of the stone inset onto the bracelet there. “You ready, partner?” Charizard roared in answer, a gout of flame shooting from his maw. “All right! Here we go!”
Light poured from the stone, and the charm around Charizard’s neck glowed bright. The dragon was enveloped in a brilliant glow, and when the blinding glare faded, Charizard surged upward on his now-larger wings, tossing his three-horned head. The fire on his tail burned even brighter, and his scales seemed to glow with an inner light, dispelling the coming evening shadows.
His trainer threw back his head and laughed, his hair streaming behind him. “We’ve really got it now, partner. Come on, let’s chase that sunset!” The Charizard poured on speed, and the ground raced by below them. Herds of Bouffalant and Gogoat charged by on the plains, hounded by packs of Mightyena and Pyroar. Flocks of Pidgeotto and Fearow glanced upward as their shadows passed overhead. A lone Dragonair burst from the surface of a lake as they soared by. Three Absol watched them from mountain steppes and turned away when they decided the Charizard meant no trouble.
And still, they hurtled towards the setting sun. In the deep purple sky behind them, some of the stars were beginning to shine, and the moon had risen. The unexplored lands were getting closer, and that all-too-familiar wanderlust was rising up again. The trainer leaned down in the harness, pressing himself close to Charizard’s back. The heat radiating from the dragon kept him warm, but he wouldn’t have cared about the cold anyway. There were new adventures to have, and the chance to look on a new land with the same sense of wonder he had all those years ago when he first left on his journey.
“Let’s go there,” he whispered. “Together.”
Author's Note: I didn't mean to write this fic. It just sort of... happened. I knew some people were doing things for the 20th anniversary, but I didn't plan to. I had a lot on my plate anyway, and I'm not really one for sentimentality. But the more I thought about it, the more I felt like I had to pay some kind of tribute to, well, all of this. To everything that Pokemon stands for as a franchise, and what it means to me. And so, well, I guess that's what this is. It's my little tribute to Pokemon for all it's done, a way of saying thank you.
And I was very certainly, definitively not misty eyed and smiling wistfully the entire time I was writing this. No, shut up, I totally wasn't!
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